Has it been just a week? It doesn’t feel like such a wonderful world right now. So perhaps it’s fitting that the Louis Armstrong musical on Broadway with that title announced its closing date over the weekend.

“Some cats ask me why I choose to think that the world is good? How about all the pain and injustice?” James Monroe Iglehart as Louis Armstrong says before singing the title song. “That ain’t good. But it’s not the world that’s good or bad, it’s how you live through it.”

And that’s the question after Week 1: How will we live through it?

Theater might help

Spring 2025 New York Theater Preview: 10 Shows to See

The Week in New York Theater Reviews

English

Sanaz Toossi’s play about four adult students in Iran taking a class to learn English is a lovely, low-key comedy, as it was when it debuted Off-Broadway in 2022. It has since won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and has now moved to Broadway. And, although only three years have passed,  we arguably have entered a new era, politically and culturally. The result is it plays differently for me now. There is too much left unexplained, too much unsaid. 

Fringe

Gwyneth Goes Skiing

The odd trial between Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson over a 2016 skiing accident was so innately campy that it makes a theatrical parody both redundant and inevitable, which is why there have been two such shows, both of which played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. One of these, “Gwyneth Goes Skiing,”  was at the International Fringe Encore Series at SoHo Playhouse through January 26 – a quintessential fringe show that’s unsurprisingly over-the-top, but also unexpectedly spot-on in its central performance, and inventive in the rest of the casting.

Famehungry

“Famehungry” is Louise Orwin’s attempt to explain TikTok and demonstrate its appeal – the former intriguing, the latter excruciating….Presented at the Edinburgh Fringe last summer, its run in New York couldn’t be more timely. TikTok, a social media app for short videos that began in 2017 and has been downloaded almost five billion times worldwide, is now officially banned by law in the United States as of last week. 

The Fire This Time Festival 2025

Hagar is fed up with the state of Black playwriting. “These kids aren’t writing anything new. They all keep circling August Wilson. Family dramas are important…but if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

It’s an odd and audacious comment by Hagar, an artistic director at a non-profit theater, who is a character in “Security Watch” by TyLie Shider, one of the six short new plays in The Fire This Time Festival, which is on stage at the Wild Project through February 2.

Odd because Wilson only wrote a handful of what could be called family dramas, unless you greatly expand the definition of family. Audacious because four of the six plays at this year’s festival could reasonably be categorized as family dramas… including “Security Watch” itself.

The Week in New York Theater News

A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical will close February 23 after 120 performances, and 31 previews

Oscar nominations: full list

 “Wicked” was nominated for ten Academy Awards— best picture, actress, supporting actress, and score, but not directing and screenplay. (More on Wicked and its connection to theater)

Another theater-related movie, “Sing Sing,” a feature film about an actual theater program in a penitentially, received three nominations — Colman Domingo for best actor, as well as adapted screenplay and original score. (More on Sing Sing and its connection to theater)

New “Wicked” leads on Broadway starting March 4: Lencia Kebede as Elphaba, Allie Trim as Glinda Kebede, who toured Hamilton as Anjelica & sang backup to Beyonce, is the first Black actress to play Elphaba full-time on Broadway. Trimm is a 3x Bway vet, including as Glinda standby.

Betty Gilpin as Mary Todd Lincoln and Phillip James Brannon as “Mary’s husband” (President Lincoln) are the new leads in OH, MARY!

Redwood, which began previews at Broadway’s Nederlander Theater announces lottery and rush policies: Digital lottery: $49 In-person rush: $44 Details in my post on Broadway Rush and Lottery Policies

Dead Outlaw, which will open on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on April 27, 2025, will feature the same cast as performed Off-Broadway: Andrew Durand as Elmer McCurdy, Jeb Brown as Band Leader/Jarrett, Eddie Cooper as Coroner Johnson, Dashiell Eaves as Louis/Charles Patterson, Julia Knitel as Helen/Maggie, Ken Marks as George, Trent Saunders as Andy Payne, Thom Sesma as Coroner Noguchi, with Emily Fink and Max Sangerman as understudies. 

New photos of Maybe Happy Ending plus announcement of a fan event on Feb 12: “Party Like It’s 2064” (the year the musical is set) with “merch giveaways during the morning in-person rush line, Q&A style online live streams: photo-opportunities w/ cast members” Tix that day (by lottery): $64

The one-night-only staging of climate change concert “Dear Everything,” with actors and activists Jane Fonda and Rosario Dawson speaking to the crowd, will play Manhattan’s Terminal 5 on Jan. 30.